Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka were down by 7.4% in January 2020, from a year earlier, confirming a downturn in Chinese tourists, as the city has been struck by the Deadly coronavirus outbreak.

According to limited data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), January arrivals were 226,094 as against 244,239 a year earlier.

Dip was seen in the Chinese markets with arrivals falling 15.3% to 22,363 as against 26,414 a year earlier.

China is Sri Lanka’s second-largest source market and brought in 167,863 travellers last year. China has over 150 million outbound tourists, with its increasing 14% year-on-year.

The number of Chinese tourist arrivals increased dramatically after 2013. Chinese tourist arrivals grew by a remarkable 72.5% in 2010-2016.

Prompted by the Wuhan coronavirus, which has infected at least 17,205 people and killed 361 since it was first identified in central China in December 2019, authorities in China begun placing restrictions in an effort to contain the virus, including suspending all tour groups and the sale of flight and hotel packages for its citizens headed overseas.

China is the world's largest market for outbound travel, having skyrocketed from 4.5 million travelers in 2000 to 150 million in 2018.

Following the recent ban on group trips and package-bookings, the absence of Chinese travelers were felt most dramatically across the Asia-Pacific region, which depends heavily on Chinese tourism, while parts of Europe and the Americas are also feeling the pressure.

On Thursday, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global health emergency, adding to the cacophony of alarm bells ringing around the world.

Airlines like United, American, Delta, British Airways, KLM, Air Canada and Lufthansa have suspended service to and from many Chinese cities while others such as Cathay Pacific have reduced flights.

Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea and Russia have partially -- or totally -- closed their borders with China to prevent the spread of the disease.

As a result of these dramatic travel restrictions, typically busy tourist destinations like Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Golden Palace in Bangkok or the Imperial Palace in Tokyo have been noticeably emptier than usual.

China alone contributed 51% of the travel and tourism GDP in the Asia-Pacific region in 2018, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).